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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2016 Dec 8;64(3):519–527. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2016.2637828

Fig. 2. Experimental and mathematical configuration.

Fig. 2

(A) The Boyden transwell invasion assay used in [9]. Glioma cells were suspended in low-serum medium in the upper chamber while microglia or medium alone (control) were put into the lower chamber. Semi-permeable inserts of 12 μm pore diameter coated with Matrigel ECM were inserted in the filter. In response to TGF-β secreted by microglia in the lower chamber, glioma cells degrade the ECM proteolytically and invade the lower chamber. The number of migrating cells on the lower surface of the permeable membrane were counted after 36 h in the absence and presence of microglia in the lower chamber. (B) A schematic of the 1D representation of the assay chamber: CSF-1, EGF, TGF-β, MMP, and tumor cells can cross the semi-permeable membrane, but neither type of microglia can cross it. Initially the glioma cells reside in the upper chamber (domain Ω+) while microglia are placed in the lower chamber (domain Ω−).